What would I change?

It's come to the end of the whole project, but there are so many improvements I would make for future reference. Fortunately, I have still made several accomplishments during this whole journey that I am quite proud of.

• PLANNING: In terms of quality planning, I do feel I have been much more detailed than in last years coursework. I had ideas before but they were vaguely explained and this meant I went straight in to filming without feeling prepared. In this A2 coursework I have taken the planning stage much more seriously, for example, I really felt it was necessary to do some  basic research to help me with not just the content of the music video, but also the way in which the content was delivered; I carried this out by doing some research on various filming techniques, i.e. stop-motion  and tried to practise them myself. This was actually very beneficial; the problem was, I left a lot of this crucial planning a bit too late so some of the quality in the scenes of my video may have suffered as a result.

• EXPERIMENTING: I feel I've come a long way since AS, where I would often try and 'play it safe' as it was and just stick to what I've learnt in class to aid me in my coursework, but this coursework has inspired me to think outside of the box in terms of  editing and problem solving.
  For example, in terms of problem solving,  having problems of availability (with the cast) would have affected me before and I probably wouldn't have had the confidence to not stick to my initial plan, but in this coursework I managed to overcome these problems, even if it meant certain cast members were not available I decided to use the people available, i.e. getting two friends who were not specifically in the allocated roles to play the boy and girl for the short hug scene. It was so simple and easy yet I probably wouldn't have thought of it before.

• Have A sharper eye for DETAIL: Some of the most major mistakes in my coursework have been caused by my lack of attention to detail. This can be evidenced by mistakes in the filming stage. For instance, simple mistakes such as not looking at the way in which the main character was lip syncing for a certain part and allowing objects in the mise-en-scene of some scenes which may be distracting, to be filmed.

• OVERTHINKING: I have the tendency to other think things and one of my friends has even told me this. During this project, one of my main obstacles was trying to convey meaning without going overboard. At one point I wanted to have lots of little added scenes and props to have in the filming, my friend could only describe me as being incredibly 'cheesy' when she found out I'd bought heart shaped wedding confetti and was planning on buying love heart lights for certain scenes! What I learnt is that sometimes keeping things simple is best from my peers. I have seen some fantastic music videos within my group and they are all kept pretty simple but effective, allowing easy viewing for the audience. Perhaps this is what works best. If I had to do this project again I would definitely go easy on the extra things that I had in mind and stay focused more on being able to master the basics.

Evaluation

Digipak Templates & Promo Poster with Feedback

I've just finished my ancillary tasks with the help of some feedback. Below are the final outcomes and based on majority views, I've decided to use the second version of the digipak and promotional poster. I hope I have made the right decision. All my feedback can be seen below!

Music Video - Final

Myxx - I'll Be Waiting (Coursework Music Video) from Imani Pratt on Vimeo.

So this is the end result of my final edit!....
I am relieved to have gotten it finished after all that work, but it was a fun process most times, testing out all the different video effects, transitions and ways of using the Adobe Premiere software.

Filming session 8

Today I filmed the scenes where Rosemary and her friend are supposed to be hanging out. I say 'friend' because unfortunately the other character was too ill to be filmed today. In general I had to make changes anyway as I eventually decided to change the location completely. Originally I wanted to have it in Enfield town where the little outdoor mall is. But knowing that the scene is only a few seconds short, and that travelling would have been more trouble than necessary for the two characters - which would waste more time, I thought, no, why not do it somewhere closer, with less people to interrupt the scene and have it close enough so that I could easily travel to the next filming location (my house).
I did several walking outtakes with the main character and her friend. The idea was to have them casually walking and talking so that when I edit it, it will look like they are just hanging out and chilling out normally as friends would. I wanted to experiment with different angles so I filmed behind them and then back in front so that they would be walking away from the camera from behind and then toward the camera as I moved it in front.
After the 2 cast members arrived at my house I filmed the scene where Rose is rudely interrupted whilst having a conversation with her friend, as her friend's phone rings and he boyfriend happens to be calling. I had a close up of the phone and a quick cut to the friend going off on the phone to illustrate the sense of loneliness the main character felt.
Secondly I had the two characters walking down the red stairs and a close up of Rose's hand turning the door knob, as well as her doing her make-up in front of the mirror. The last scene I did was towards the end of the day at about 6ish when I saw the sky outside, I couldn't resist filming another time lapse just as the sun was beginning to set. I wanted to keep the scenes short and snappy but I am worried that they will be too quick for the viewers to digest.

As previously planned, I did have many other scenes I would have liked to do such as the 'waving a sign' scene where Rose sees a sign that is completely different to what is actually there, or the ending scene where she meets her prince charming and we see a panning up from his legs....but, I decided that as much as I'd like to really narrate the music video as much as I could through the scenes, that being literal isn't always the best technique to use. In fact, I think that the viewers probably get the whole concept of 'waiting' in the song as soon as the first chorus is sung. Instead I'm thinking of doing as I planned in terms of crosscutting back to the beginning when she was in the classroom BUT not including the other playful, really short scenes because they are actually quite unnecessary now that I think about it.
If it's anything new I've learned today its that sometimes simplicity is better when illustrating a music video.

Re-filming Scene 6

I re-filmed Kemi's part today. The weather was nice and sunny. I had her in a completely different spot from last time to eradicate space restrictions. There is a small area with a brick wall just behind the grass at one of the back door entrances in to the school. I had Kemi walk up the path to the school, walk across the grass and then I filmed her against the brick wall in different positions. I had her in the shady part of the wall because the intense sunlight on her just wasn't working on the screen, not only could I not see her because the exposure levels were too high, it was also probably uncomfortable for her as well standing in the sun. As a result I decided to limit her standing in the sun too much. So the final result ended up with her standing in the dark for the majority but one of the last shots standing in the light. It wasn't intended BUT...I think it highlights a concept in itself, her going from light to dark could visually link to the lyrics and the fact that time is going by gradually as she is waiting for love. "need love like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that," so in my opinion it does work conceptually if not visually. Overall I think this filming session was a lot smoother, I wasn't constantly zooming in and out as she was walking and I kept the shots simple. This allowed me to be more steady with the camera and focus more on the variation of shots to take.
But when I edit the whole thing I'm thinking of cropping the edges because some parts of the mise-en-scene seem a bit necessary, for example when she is walking there are garbage containers evident, not exactly the look I was going for.

Filming session 7

Filmed the cafe scene today with Sharlene and Mikael, main character Rose and an extra as her friend.

Getting permission was easier than I thought, I just asked the man if I could film, and once I told him how long I'd be he let me but he said I didn't have long.
The layout of the cafe was not really as I expected. As soon as I walked in I noticed the seats were not at the front, and I originally intended to have an over the shoulder shot of Rose standing and looking at the couple from inside of the place. So instead I decided to film inside, with the 4 characters sitting parallel to each other and having their own discussions going on before they both interlinked with each other as Rose turns to see them.
I decided to have a shot panning of the inside of the store before it got to the characters sitting down in the frame.
The lighting was a downfall, it could have been a lot lighter and it was quite dark in there. But I did manage to get the short scene done even if I had to change the whole structure of camera shots to work around the layout of it.
Yes...I will admit there was an element of poor preparation in terms of working with the structure of the setting, for example, I could have gone after school to have a quick browse around the store so that I could see what kind of shots would have been suitable for the layout of the place. This wouldn't have changed the situation but it would have allowed me to be more prepared instead of having to think on the spot all time.
What I've realized is that although organization is KEY, it is not my forte!

Feedback from second cut

Things to improve on:

• Try not to use too much tilts/zooms
• Improve on the framing in scenes
• Kemi's scene I recently filmed has a lot of random zooming in and out as she is walking and not sure if it works
• Better stability in shots

But, overall, much better footage.

I am going to re-film Kemi's part even though I have a lot of scenes to film over the week because I want to get it perfect, I just won't stand for 'ok'.
I will probably change the location again, just because the location I chose was very awkward and this may have impacted on the footage and the accuracy of the lip syncing.
In actual fact, I am not sure how Kemi's part can be linked to the stop-motion clocks on the table in the next sequence. I'm not sure it flows...but for now, I haven't had any particular negative comments about it, so I'll leave it until I've sorted out the major scenes.

Filming session 6

Filmed Kemi's bit after school today. I used the area not too far away from the school as I wanted there to be a brick wall in the background. I didn't get ALL of the initial shots I wanted to use in the storyboard, by this I mean, proper close-ups on the artist's facial features or of the watch on her wrist... (although that was probably because I did not have a watch at the time!)
But I did have her walking in different directions as planned. And when I edited it I had the three scenes of her walking which merged together as I faded them. I tried stop-motion with Kemi but the third angle of her went wrong because the framing had somehow moved, and stop-motion involves the background in a scene to be at a constant angle all throughout, so that it remains effective, so I might have to re-film that part!
As usual there were quite a few disruptions during filming as we were right in the middle of a pavement in Palmers Green, deary me, I'm actually starting to doubt my choice of location! It was originally meant to be Canon Hill, but today is a school day, it's easier to get access to areas closer to the school for my actress so I decided to compromise.

Filming session 5

Originally intended on re-filming the bridge scene s mentioned in the previous post, BUT I realized it just wasn't working for me. The area was too narrow, I was getting far too many interruptions which pressured me to rush things and the lighting there was very dark even through the sun was out at the time.
Finally I came up with the idea of having the main character walk down the path of the field. It was an open area and allowed more space in terms of framing and the camera movements were not limited due to the size of the area. Personally I feel it's a big improvement from when I was filming on the bridge last. The steadiness of the camera has also improved vastly which was one of my main concerns. I filmed her from two different angles. The first was a (horizontal) long shot which transitioned into a mid shot of the character walking towards the gate and the second was a zoom shot where I zoomed out of the character's face as she began to walking through it.
I've decided to use the best bits of the bridge parts I had filmed to put in to the rough edit and sped it up. I'm not sure if it works. But I'll have to wait and see!

Filming session 4

Today, I managed to do the scene of Rose in the 'separate room' I mentioned earlier on in the planning stage. I decided to use my mom's bedroom because the Mise-en-scene includes the color red which can be used to connote the theme of love in the song.
I used a lot of variations in terms of the positioning of the character cause I just wanted to identify what position looked best in the frame. I had her lay down, sit up, rest against the pillows, stand by the window and look in the mirror. The lighting could be better as she is standing by the window but I can always make it brighter hopefully when I edit it all together.
I'm a bit worried about the lip syncing right now, I explained this to my character as at some points before I noticed her mouth movements were over-emphasized, making the lyrics appear to be coming out of her mouth much slower than necessary.
I did get a lot done in this session though. Right now I'm trying to focus on getting the short scenes of the narrative finished, I think I might even re-film the bridge scene if possible, because even though the rough cut I did didn't contain the better sequences that I had, even those ones could be improved more. I'll keep the scene short and snappy because I don't want the audience to get bored. I might even have a tracking shot at the beginning to include more of a variety of shots at the beginning to draw the audience in more and allow them to connect more with the singer.
I used a coin to tighten the tripod and reduce shakiness. To be honest, I wish I did that before, it would save me having to re-film the bridge scene! lol but oh well, re-filming is inevitable and vital for improvement.

Feedback from first cut

• The shots are too shaky
• There is not enough range of shot distances
• The lip syncing is out of sync with the music
• The intro is too long.

Overall, the first rough edit showed poor footage.
(the black gaps in the cut below indicate bits where inserted footage should be)
Most of the feedback I am not surprised with. I am aware that the rough cut of editing I showed my teacher did not include the best sequences, this is because even though I refilmed the bridge parts when the weather was brighter and when the ability of zoom shots were much better in the end I felt some of the old footage may have fitted in better. I even decided not to use the zoom shot I filmed and this jeopardized my range of shots. I do still feel I have considerably better control over the stability of the frame because even whilst tightening the parts tripod, it is easy for the camera to move and I have been having problems with this lately but this particular problem is easy to improve on...
I have noticed myself that in general the artist is not connecting with the
audience enough.
The style my music video is in is a narrative style, but now I'm a bit worried that instead of taking a literal interpretation of the lyrics, it should have been a bit more abstract maybe? I'm not sure...but I have much more to film, and I know I will include
various filming techniques in between the rest of the scenes so I probably shouldn't worry too much about getting a boring visual display, cause as my teacher said, objects and mise-en-scene are just as important when it comes to conveying the concept of the song.

You can already see it's pretty bleak and unclear in these snapshots, and that I've gotten a bit carried away with the zoom function! - whoops.

Filming session 3 continued...

Today I filmed the second part to the beginning of the music video where main character Rose is walking on the bridge and turns round to see a couple hugging each other.

I had a friend that offered to get a guy she knew to play the part for the boy in the couple but his schedule seemed totally out of sync with when I needed him so I finally decided that today I should just improvise and use someone I knew and had regular contact with (i.e. from the school) to play the part of the boy for me. So, I grabbed one of my brother's hoodies and his hats and popped it int he bag with the tripod and camera before I set off for school.

Success. I selected a boy and a girl and at approx 1:15pm I started filming the 5 second scene.
It was fairly easy, I decided not to do any zoom shots because I had to continue on from the scene where Rose turns around to see them and I felt at the time it would be more effective to have a long-shot of them hugging because it suits the character's perspective from where she was standing and also highlights her feelings of possible loneliness.

Availability

In all honesty, I never thought availability of the actresses/actors in my cast would be much of an issue. But every single day something pops up and one of the actresses happens to not be available!!

But I'm trying not to let that get in the way. If all else fails I'm going to cut the cast, use other people and by that I mean family, or who ever I can get hold of.

I refuse to let this affect everything after I've spent so much time planning out for what I want to happen.

For once I would just like to stick to what I planned. But when times get tough, I'm going to have to adapt for the sake of getting it done.

Re-filming Scene 3

Today I managed to re-film the first part of the music video where the main character Rose is walking across the bridge.

I feel the camera was much steadier this time and I can see I've gotten used to controlling the speed of the zooming in and out movements.
Another plus side is that the weather was actually sunny today and not as bleak, dull and dark as it was when I previously filmed. I did a lot of outtakes today, cause I was worried about the lip syncing of the lyrics and whether or not they were in harmony with the song.
Shortly after that scene I suggested we use a small closed off park bit near my home area, but when we got there it was not the look I was going for. The ground looked muddy and dirty and the bench looked old and crooked plus there was no nice scenery that I may have liked for an establishing shot, so then we hopped straight back towards Palmer's Green, where I decided to film in Broomfield Park. The ducks flying round the pond looked like a nice establishing shot to have and the bench was clean enough to sit on for the main character so this setting was much better. I made her sing the chorus' of the song and I mounted the tripod so that I could get a tilt shot pointing downwards.

I thought by recording her singing the chorus to the song in different places would give me more variety of shots for when I want to jump cut from each scene to the next. But I still want to use the green screen fabric I bought. So I did some more research then went to Argos to buy 2 clothing rails to hang it on. I'm hoping I will find a big enough space to use it in and that lighting will not be a problem.
Tomorrow I'll be filming scenes 6 where Rose and her friends are seen walking in the outdoor mall. Hopefully I can squeeze in scene 7 also, where Rose is at my house with her friends.

MOOD BOARD for DIGIPAK & POSTER

Digipak Analysis

Promotional Poster Analysis

Filming Session 3

08/02/11 10:20am - 10:50am

Today I did my second filming session in the scene that follows after the classroom scene transcends into a daydream. The weather today is bleak and slightly foggy but the quality of the movie sequence still came out alright. I decided to have a quick establishing shot before the camera addressed the main character and because the filming was done on the bridge,the establishing shot included some of the pond and the ducks which kind of set the scene before Rosemary's character was introduced. I had to experiment a lot with this shot and I realised that loosening the tripod head gave me the smoothest movement as the camera panned to the right.
The scene consisted of the main character Rose walking across the bridge, stopping and staring into the distance of the pond, after this she lip synced to the first two lines of the song. During the scene I had a lot of zoom shots, focusing on her face cause I feel it gives the audience an immediate connection with her character if they can see her close-up.

Problems/issues: Although the area was not too crowded with people, we did get the odd person on their bike or jogger running through the scene. I don't think much can be avoided with this except next time I need to pause the recording quicker to avoid them showing up in any of the outtakes.
Secondly, zooming in and out at the appropriate pace was difficult for me at times I think I just need to familiarize myself with the way in which I push the 'T-W' button on the camera as although I know how to do zoom shots I often confuse how to use the button to zoom out and how to use the button to zoom in a lot, and this is one of the other reasons why I kept on having to re-film the bit where she stopped to look towards the pond area.

However, having a lot of outtakes is not necessarily a bad thing cause then I have more choice to use when it comes to the editing process.

Improvements: I think I've improved the steadiness of the camera a lot since the last camera session as I've got a lot better with manipulating the tripod parts to suit the movements I want to create, For example, I made the establishing quick as the camera panned to the left to suit the tempo of the introduction which is quite fast.

The thing I'm looking forward to is experimenting with different recordings that i can insert in between scenes in the editing process. For example, I might have a recordings of the electronic bus timetable at various bus stops, I might have a recording of traffic lights changing, different clocks ticking as well as the filmed traffic lapse i have already done. Hopefully, all of these scenes will contribute to the symbolism of time.

CD Cover Analysis

I decided to do some research on general CD album covers for the POP/RNB genre seeing as I have to make my own digipack for the second part of the coursework. I've gathered a lot of ideas so far.
If I want an effective CD cover, I'm going to need to make the image eye catching in someway. My favorite way of doing this so far is by using contrasting colours which many of the above CD album covers have used, for example, in Keri Hilson's where pinks, purples and yellow tones of colour contrast with the monochrome image of her.
The use of filters, i.e. blurry filters also prove beneficial in helping the image to stand out. Other effects such as spotlighting, and using sun rays also emphasise the artist's presence and draw attention to it. I can't wait to start testing out all of these ideas when I develop my own, but for now I could do with a LOT of practise using Adobe photoshop and even Fireworks first before I confirm any final ideas.